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Writer's pictureNigel Barrow

Moving forward into the New Year

A wise skipper once said to me, keep all your options open. That same skipper is upgrading his design and benchmarking/two boat testing and racing his new designs in a variety of conditions to decide how to optimally tweak the design and I have the pleasure to help him in the sailing process and contribute where I can.


I have enjoyed working up the Alioth and reaching a final configuration but now in the interest of keeping my options open, it is time to try something different. I will always have the Alioth in my back pocket.


Craig Richards has been designing his own boats for several years now and the advent of 3d printing technology and the right materials for producing a light robust boat, for him, the technology is a dream come true. Once you have the boat chassis (as I like to call it) fixed, eg shroud positions, jib tie down foredeck fitting, fin box etc, then it is very easy to update the design and see what works and doesn't work. Starting with his last design off a male mould and rapidly learning 3d CAD, it was simply a matter of scanning his Chimera hull and modifying it and converting the files 3d printing. Sounds easy doesn't it. If it was that easy we would all be doing it. Already he has been able to come up with subtle variations of his original Chimera design and quickly test them for the cost of print material and a sheet of glass plus a ton of time putting everything together.


Previously, design development involved modifying a male mold with filler, sanding and shaping and then laying up the new hull and making, molding and fitting all the bits. A long and tortuous businness as anyone who has tried will know.


Now 3d printing technology is not quite there yet to produce a perfect hull in two or more section prints although Polymax PLA give a very robust product as I found with my Alioth. If you print a section of the boat and jump on it with both feet, the only damage is a slight whitening of the plastic where the material is deformed. The compromise at the moment is to print in the lightest material (say ESAM PLA) and as thin as possible and coat the hull in a layer of glass. This achieves an extremely strong light structure delivering the same strength profile as a glass epoxy hull.


The first hull which Craig produced looked quick, balanced upwind and fast downwind but there is lots of testing and development to be done. The neat thing about the new design is the ability to get the booms on or near the deck but maintain a smooth profile on the deck line to allow for efficient airflow.


The second boat and a slightly modified design was for me, and tweaked with a few mm here and there (lower the bow and slightly less rocker) was slightly quicker but unfortunately, after an hour or so under C rig with a boat showing great potential, I managed to drop it off a table changing rigs and cracked the hull. Instead of flying off the handle, Craig just said calmly, "You better get the Alioth out." Majorly embarrasing on my part and so sorry to have destroyed his hard work. However there was a positive outcome with a change the build material to Polymax PLA which would likely have survived the fall.


So from what we saw on the initlial flat water outing in 20 plus mph of breeze, the signs were good but we need to test the design in a chop at Datchet and line up with a V12 and Venti then test through the full wind range. Then we will have a true measure of the design. More on progress in the coming weeks and months.


The thing I love about the IOM is the opportunity for innovation. I think the class was a bit stagnent with a few designs dominating in the last few years, but now I see new developments all over the place. Not only are we seeing many new boats on the water with the Alioth but there are many home builders emerging as well as professional design updates. Sailboat RC have the New VISS, Ian Vickers the new V12, Brad Gibson has his Post punk design, I hear rumours of a possible new Venti, a stunning new winning (on its first outing) home grown French (No 08) design appeared on Facebook, Ben Harker is working up a new design, Craig is at work on iterations on his design and, we may see Alioth enhancement from Juan at some point in the next couple of years but I have no concrete information on this. I know there are many other projects on the go.


The benchmark designs all beggining with V are clear from this years worlds. Who will move the design forward. It will be an exciting run up to the IOM worlds in 2026 but of course the most skillful sailor who is probably a designer with decades of experience (e.g. Zvonko, Ian, Brad, Craig) will win through unless another Colin Goodman (UK) appears over the horizon and cleans up in an imaculately prepared production boat although sadly I do not believe he ever got to a Europeans or Worlds in radio sailing.


Have a great Christmas. More from our design testing as we get some time on the water.


Nigel


This is where the hard work is done.


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